Same here

A couple of you hit it on the head. Letting the car warm up too long leaves carbon deposits in the valvetrain thereby producing an undesireable effect in your motor. 30 seconds is fine in most cases, slightly longer in extreme cold. Even driving your car for very short distances at low rpms repeatedly without bringing it to sustained highway speeds can cause carbon deposits. So all of you guys that just use you G's or Z's to go to the 7-11 down the block,.. take her on the highway for a little excersise once in a while.

^+1

And...if you're worried about water building up in the catalytic converters, you should probably find something else to worry about—unless you have a very slow, leisurely drive in heavy traffic ahead of you everyday. As long as you are driving for a long enough duration that the exhaust system is getting hot enough, there should never be any worry about water in your pipes. Extended durations at higher RPMs are better on your exhaust—greater heat and pressure to force whatever moisture that might be in the system through. A city-driver's exhaust will more than likely not last as long as the long-distance commuter's exhaust.

Besides, catalytic converters run notoriously hot. I'd be more concerned about water vapor/moisture in the pipes BEHIND the cats where lower temperatures may slightly condense some of that moisture that has passed through the cats.

15 years driving, 8 sports cars later and not once have I had to replace a catalytic converter. Plenty of plumbing, but never a cat.

This obviously is speaking about just idling your car regardless of oil temperatures. Certainly idling your car at ANY time for prolonged periods of time cannot be good. I'm pretty sure that ENGINE OIL temps have nothing to do with whether or not the fuel will combust.

And regardless, if you idle it or even DRIVE it in this case according to what youre saying, then its going to happen anyway since it happens when the "engine is not up to temp".

There is a reason why the RPMS are higher when the car is started in the mornings.

i wait for it until the it Touches the "C"..then im outtttt

I just read in the newspaper that it is pointless to warm up a new car no matter how cold it is, just as long as you don't drive too hard for the first minute or so...the paper said it was a waste of gas and if you absolutely feel you need to warm up your car you should only do it for 30sec

GM did a case study on this. So many people pull theories out of their butt on this one. Cars are made to be driven; not sit idling for 10 minutes. The study showed how cars actually endure more stress by idling cold compared to driving at low rpm's. The catch 20 is there are a lot of parts that need to be warmed up that will never warm by idling. The study concluded its far better to start driving at lower rpm's to warm the car than to sit in the car waiting for it to warm up which only contributes to carbon build-up and doesn't help much of anything engine-wise other than get the heat going for the passengers. So if your girlfriend likes to sit in the car for 2 minutes and watch the rpm's she should do it while driving somewhere.

I always warm up my car before i take it out. but for those with an automatic if your parking on a hill or any slope it's best to put the car in N and then set the e brake. then make sure the car won't roll bak then park it in P. that way u wont get that bang when u put it into gear

I warm up for about a minute and I am good to go. When it is freezing I use the remote start and warm it a little longer.

Wow, could this be anymore off on a tangent?

I usually leave it on for a minute, then go, and start punching it after 5minutes

i say if you wait for the car's idle to drop under 1K you should be fine.... with that said, it's always better to error on the side of cautious.....

I let it idle for a minute or two on cold starts to let the engine lube up. But I read an article way back that it literally takes seconds to warm up.

Depends on how late I am... I like to start her up while brushing my teeth - Then I go back inside, gather my things, and head out (a couple minutes usually). I do it to make sure the oil is nicely distributed and so that I'm warm (or cold if it's hot) when I get in.

The only time I have ever sat in the car warming it up is when the windshield has a sheet of ice on it and I'm waiting for the defrosters to kick in. Finally, when i can duck my head and look out the little section that melted, i'm off!

I don't have an automatic but I avoid parking on hills. I don't want any fluids to leak out.